Lawmakers finally OK electric rate deal

Friday

After months of bickering, Illinois lawmakers on Thursday approved a $1 billion relief deal for people who get their electricity from Ameren and Commonwealth Edison.

After months of bickering, Illinois lawmakers on Thursday approved a $1 billion relief deal for people who get their electricity from Ameren and Commonwealth Edison.

The House of Representatives voted 80-33 for the deal, and the Senate vote was 40-13. The legislation, Senate Bill 1592, will head to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

On Thursday, Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the governor is “eager to review the legislation.” She would not specifically say if he intends to sign it.

The agreement is the result of lengthy negotiations that capped a drawn-out legislative battle over whether to reinstate an electric rate freeze that expired in January. Rates shot up this year because of the expiration of the freeze, which was part of the state’s 1997 electric deregulation law.

“It’s been a very long, painful road to get where we are today,” said Rep. George Scully, a Flossmoor Democrat who sponsored the deal in the House.

The package includes a combination of rebate checks, credits on power bills for the next few years, assistance programs for low-income customers and a new way for the state to buy electricity in the future.

Some Republicans said the plan still is too little.

But Scully said customers who experienced the largest increases in their power rates “will receive the most dollars of relief.” Basically, he said, the deal means roughly a 45 percent reduction in the size of the rate hike that consumers saw this year.

In other words, consumers will pay more for electricity than they did last year, but the size of the increase will be diminished.

The exact amount of relief for individual customers will vary widely, depending on which company they buy power from and how much electricity they use.

For instance, Ameren has said residential electric customers would get a minimum $100 credit, while residential customers with electric heat would get a credit of $1,000 or more.

GOP critics in the House also argued Thursday that Attorney General Lisa Madigan should not dismiss various lawsuits related to the electric-rate crisis. Dropping that litigation is part of the agreement that Madigan and other state officials negotiated with utility companies and power generators.

Scully said the whole deal would be in jeopardy if the litigation isn’t dropped.

One of the bill’s opponents was Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria.

“I think this is an appalling process, an appalling bill,” he said. “We can certainly do better.”

But Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said the legislation will help consumers.

“If we do not pass this today, there will be no relief for rate-payers,” said Lang. “Those are the facts.”

Democrats, who hold majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, provided most of the muscle to pass the bill. But some Republican support also was required.

All 64 House Democrats who were present voted “yes” on the bill, and so did 16 Republicans.

Central Illinois House Republicans who supported the measure were Reps. Jim Watson of Jacksonville, Jil Tracy of Mount Sterling, Keith Sommer of Morton, Richard Myers of Macomb, Donald Moffitt of Gilson and Bill Mitchell of Forsyth.

“It is time for us to put this thing to bed, to give our constituents some relief and move on and get a budget done,” Watson said.

In the Senate, a half-dozen Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in backing the legislation. The six were Sens. Dale Risinger of Peoria, Dan Cronin of Elmhurst, Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, John Millner of St. Charles, Carole Pankau of Roselle and William Peterson of Long Grove.

During Senate debate, Risinger said he doesn’t know if $1 billion is “the right figure.”

However, he said, “It’s certainly a lot more than we started with.”

Lawmakers’ work on the electricity issue isn’t finished, Risinger said. One area of concern is the difference between Ameren’s electric rates for Missouri customers, who pay less, and its Illinois customers, he said.

Illinois passed an electric deregulation law in 1997, but Missouri has no similar law.

Reach Adriana Colindres of GateHouse News Service at (217) 782-6292 or Adriana.colindres@sj-r.com

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